COLLEGE101Project

Presentation by: Laura Williamson

A product of:

Project Purpose

Design website, targeting Teens, that will be useful, fun and resourceful

Develop strategy for website used to help teen transformation from high school to college

PRIMARY QUESTIONS

Known Questions:• Why a Website? • Why Teens?

Unknown Questions:• What do we know about College Bound Teens?

Are they making the transition? What’s currently being done to help them?

• What do we know about (College bound) Teen internet behavior?

PRIMARY QUESTIONS:Why College Bound Teens as the Target Market?

(Known)

Prospective Users

of PAP services

PRIMARY QUESTIONS:Research for Unknowns –

Parts 1 & 2

Part 1: What do we know about College Bound Teens as the Target Market?

• Snap shot of daily life• Transitioning• Needs

Part 2: What do we know about (College bound) Teen internet behavior?

• How?• Why?

• When?• Where?

RESEARCH RESULTS:About College Bound Teens: Transitioning

In 2004, 60% of high school students said they would attend a four-year college

More than 40% of students arrive on college campuses needing remedial work.

Only about ½ of the high-school graduates who enter college have pursued a college-preparatory curriculum. (e.g. 25,000 students at UT)

Chronicle of Higher Education Handout

College and universities spend billions of dollars a year trying to bring those unprepared students up to speed. (EX: FIG at UT)

Students who are not in the top 15 percent of their high school classes do not receive clear, adequate information from teachers and counselors about what they need to know and do to succeed in college.

College Acceptance more Competitive

RESEARCH RESULTS:About College Bound Teens -

Transitioning and Needs

States need to improve preparation needs in high schools

Current preparation for teens is established on a state-to-state basis however teens need help nationally.

Funding is part of the issue with developing a proper transitional guidance system.

FIG (Freshman Interest Group) Handout

RESEARCH RESULTS:About College Bound Teens -

Transitioning and Needs

Key: College preparation for teens is needed nationally. The web provides an opportunity as a world-wide communications medium, which states have not taken advantage of.

RESEARCH RESULTS:What ARE students prepared for?

Westlake High School– over 90% graduates accepted to college or university

Mrs. Pat Walters (Expert – Primary Research): College and Career Counselor for Westlake High School

– Separate office for Career Counseling not like other schools

– “High school and College should be ‘seamless’ but they are separate – however there is a movement to integrate the two”

– Assessment: 2 Electronic Test results integrated to help guide students:

• Bridges Self-Directed Search Test based on John Holland Codes

• Myers Brigs Personality Test

John Holland Codes - FYI

• Test for: – Careers– Interests – Abilities

• Holland Heximodel

Myers Brigs Personality Test - FYI

• Jung's typology using three criteria. – Extraversion – Introversion– Sensing - Intuition – Thinking - Feeling

• Isabel Briggs-Myers added fourth criterion: – Judging - Perceiving

NOTE: Personality Tests are offered online

RESEARCH RESULTS:Websites offering college transitional and

preparatory help

• Collegebound.com• Collegecountdown.com (paid)• College-connections.com• Collegeboard.com• Collegeanswer.com• Other sites available:

– USNews.com– GoAlice.com– Xplain.com

KEY: Many websites offer information that can help college transition and preparation however, research suggests that there may be several reasons that teens are not learning about the topics on these sites.

RESEARCH RESULTS:Why aren’t students prepared for college?

• Information Overload

• Inability to Research

• Boredom with helpful sites

Key: The information is available but it’s not being accessed due to inability to research and boredom with design of site and informational layout/content

Key 2: Creative solutions to these problems can be overcome with the correct tools. “How” is the question to be answered and/or developed.

RESEARCH RESULTS:What do college bound teens need?

Help transitioning

and preparing for college

beginning at age 14;

Freshman.

Question: With this knowledge, how can Pick-A-Prof serve the needs of college bound teens?

94% of teens utilize a personal computer.

95% of teens that utilize a personal computer participate in online or interactive computing.

87% (approximately 21 million) of 12- to 17-year-olds use the internet.

TEENS AND THE INTERNET: THE TARGET MARKET

51% of teens with internet access go online daily vs. the 42% from 2000

20 million teenagers in the US = $100/weekly

High potential for targeting on web

TEENS AND THE INTERNET: THE TARGET MARKET

Students use Internet as virtual:– Text Book and Reference Library– Tutor and Study shortcut– Study Group– Guidance Counselor– Locker, backpack, and notebook

4 main reasons that teens use the internet (in order):

– Socializing– Entertainment– Education– Shopping

TEENS AND THE INTERNET: THE TARGET MARKET

16 million teens IM overwhelmingly for social interaction however, part of the social interaction that takes place involves academic curriculum.

–Have you ever used IM to talk about homework, tests or schoolwork? –Answer: 78% said yes, 22% said no

TEENS AND THE INTERNET: THE TARGET MARKET

Key: A high percentage of teens would and do use the net for educational purposes.

The average teen spends 5-10 hours a week on the Web.

19% of teens (12 – 17) with internet access, blog.

12 million teens post content online (blogs/WebPages)

Teens favor immediacy and opportunities for personal expression of IM

1/5 of teenagers use IM as the main means of contacting friends; most conversations motivated by a “desire for companionship” and because the Internet “allowed them to be more of their true self”.

TEENS AND THE INTERNET: THE TARGET MARKET

Key: A market for targeting teens on the web is available. How do you reach them?

“More marketers are learning how to reach young folks through online social networks”

Apple w/ Facebook.com

Walt Disney w/ Xanga.com

Target w/ MySpace.com

Coca-Cola w/ MySpace.com

KEY: Social Networking Websites are used to Target Teens because SOCIALIZING and PERSONAL EXPRESSION is what teens do.

TEENS AND THE INTERNET: THE TARGET MARKET

OUTCOME OF RESULTS

Develop website, using social networking as the motivation, that will extend services to PAPs prospective target markets (high school teens) integrating Pick-a-profs underling purpose:

Academic success (the stepping stone for career success)

Again how?

INTERMISSION

THE STRATEGY

Common Identities: TeensCommon Goals: College

Motivation

HOW DOES IT WORK

• Registration

• Functions/Tools

HOW DOES IT WORK?:Registration

• Select: Student, Parent, Educator, Visitor• Introduction – purpose of site and how to use• Name• Demographics: Age, Gender, Race, Rank• Geographic's: High School, City, State• Eventually: questions pertaining to phase of

transition• Preferences/Set Up

FUNCTIONAL TOOLS

Social Networking (Censored unlike MySpace)

– Blogs and E-mail– IMs (ongoing – saved) via

• Personality• Location (High School,

Town, State)• Career Choice• Phase of the Process

Key: The availability for teens to connect to other who relate to them will motivate them to make initial and ongoing contacts

FUNCTIONAL TOOLS:Search, Find and Tag (SFT)

IntraSearch Engine• E-mail• Site Blogs• IM conversations

Education Search Engine (Borrows from AskJeeves.Com)• Personality Test/Holland Codes• CollegeBound.com• SAT Prep: Collegeboard.com• Relationships, Psychological:

Goalice.com• Health: Xplain.com

FUNCTIONAL TOOLS

Preferences(Borrows from MySpace and Yahoo Widget’s maneuverability capabilities)

– Layout of Page– Color Schemes– Backgrounds– Pictures– Text Window Content (Borrowed From Power Point)

FUNCTIONAL TOOLS

Organization (Borrowed from Outlook Concept)

• E-mail contacts w/ option to download from other programs• Calendar w/ option to download from other programs• My Book (borrows from UT Webspace)

FUNCTIONAL TOOLS:My Book

My Electronic Book (Borrows from Delicious.com)

– User Activity Record– Articles– Websites– E-mails– Blogs– IMs– SAT Scores– Personality Tests– College Applications– Essays– Personal Diary and

Creative Thoughts– Letters of Recommendation– Resume

Note: The My Book function will actually have a different name - a name chosen by the creator and will be assigned a web address. EX: John Cunningham’s Book

Recommended Additions

Web-Based Generalized Guidance Curriculum and Certification of Completion:

To serve as a non-individualized high school guidance counselor on a national level.

To serve as part of the college application processing

Note: After construction of curriculum is completed, questions will be added to the registration process which can help to guide and categorize students

Recommended Additions

Podcasts and Videocasts by:

Age Appropriate Teens

Successful College101 Students

(Borrows from Bolt.com)

Key: Continues w/ Teens educating Teens

BENEFITS OF SITE

• Company Benefits:– PAP Profit Margin increases – Company Growth (more

employees)– Positive National PR for PAP

(as parent company)– Positive Advertising for PAP as

Parent Company

BENEFITS OF SITE

• Student Benefits:– Marketing Device for

College Acceptance – Builds socialization

skills– Builds knowledge of

networking and the synergy created in teamwork

– Builds self-esteem through achievement

BENEFITS OF SITE

• Parental and Educator Benefits– Will provide feedback to

parents and educators to use in guiding teens on a more individualized basis then otherwise offered through the site.

BENEFITS OF SITE

• College Benefits– Helps make selection process

more competitive– Alleviates responsibility of

college to bring incoming college freshman up to speed saving the college time and money

BENEFITS OF SITE

• Societal Benefits– Stepping stone to solving

national college transition/preparation matter

– Will create new job(s)– Provides education

Decreased Poverty

Where to go from here?:Strategic Development and

Tactical Implementation Recommendations

Education Major Internship (Group Project) - Handout

Design Major Internship (Group Project)

Business/Marketing MajorInternship (Group Project)

Advertising Campaigns Class Marketing Communications Plan

THAT’S A WRAP

QUESTIONS

CRITIQUE COMMENTS

SUGGESTIONS

THANK YOU!!!